A federal judge accused the Trump administration late Sunday of openly defying the courts with its deployment of National Guard members to Portland, Oregon, which had been blocked on Saturday after being deemed unconstitutional.
Last week, President Donald Trump authorized 200 National Guard members for deployment in Portland, which he described without evidence as being “war-ravaged.” On Saturday, however, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, blocked the deployment, and said that the Trump administration’s actions “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power.”
In an apparent attempt to circumvent the judge’s order, the Trump administration subsequently ordered the deployment of 300 National Guard troops from California to Portland, a deployment that Immergut condemned Sunday as being “in direct contravention” of her previous order.
“I am certainly troubled by now hearing that both California and Texas National Guard are being sent into Oregon, which does appear to be in direct contravention of my order,” Immergut said, Politico reported on Monday.
According to Politico, an attorney with Trump’s Justice Department pushed back Immergut’s assessment, arguing that the Trump administration did not violate her order given that it only applied to Oregon National Guard members, and not those from California.
“You are missing the point,” Immergut said.
Scott Kennedy, the senior assistant attorney general for the state of Oregon, also criticized the Trump administration’s justification for defying the court, saying it felt “a little bit like we’re playing a game of rhetorical whack-a-mole here,” Politico reported.
The Trump administration has routinely clashed with federal courts over its use of federal troops to curb crime in Democrat-led cities. In addition to its order to mobilize National Guard members in California, the Trump administration also moved to mobilize National Guard members from Texas for a potential deployment to Portland, according to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.